LAKE PLACID – The Lake Placid Center for the Arts presents a highbrow piano recital turned catastrophe that the Montreal Gazette calls, ” irresistibly funny,” when the contemporary circus performance, “The Pianist” takes the LPCA stage at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children and are available by calling the box office at 518-523-2512 or online at www.lakeplacidarts.org.

“The Pianist” is the story of a concert pianist whose quest to perform the recital of his life becomes a total catastrophe. It is a circus piece by Thomas Monckton (“Moving Stationery”) and Circo Aereo (Finland). The show is centered on, in, under, and around one of the most magnificent of all musical instruments, the grand piano.

Accompanying this apparatus is the poised pianist himself. Only he is so focused on impressing everyone that before he realizes it, his show has transformed from the highbrow concert he hoped for into the amusing catastrophe that is “The Pianist.” To salvage his somewhat unsalvageable dignity, the pianist draws on his imagination and comes up with some absurd results.

“The Pianist” mixes classical clowning with contemporary circus to produce a charming piece of comedy about the lure of luxury.

Monckton is a New Zealander from Patea, South Taranaki. He learned to juggle when he was 8, rode a unicycle to high school, then trained at CircoArts in Christchurch, and later at L’Ecole Internationale du Theatre Jacques Lecoq.

Monckton resides in Paris but constantly travels the world creating and performing cross-genre contemporary theatre and circus performances.

Circo Aereo is an international contemporary circus group from Finland. Circo Aereo is based in Finland and France but the troupe frequently performs around the world. Currently one of the most active Finnish groups in terms of performing abroad, Circo Aereo is among the flagships of Finnish cultural exports.